In search of a rare culture: the Arctic’s Sami people

Posted on October 26, 2015

Exploring the wild beauty of the frozen North and its indigenous people

Beneath the Ice, published on 3 March by Saraband, chronicles one man’s lifelong fascination with, and yearning to understand, the Sami – the indigenous people of the Scandinavian Arctic.

Displaying a deep empathy, Kenneth Steven tells the intriguing, often troubling, story of the Sami, who are a proud, resilient people living in an unforgiving yet majestic wildscape.

The Sami, often known as Laplanders or Lapps, have carved out an existence rich in tradition, where the old ways of reindeer herding, shamanic belief and the veneration of bears have not yet been forgotten.

But they are also a people often persecuted and a community under threat from modernity and climate change.

In Beneath the Ice, Kenneth Steven celebrates this unique culture in a collection of essays that tell of his love affair with the north, and his own encounters with the Sami.

In so doing, he uncovers the Sami’s idiosyncratic culture – and captures the very essence of northern spirit.